by Greg Toppo, USATODAY

by Greg Toppo, USATODAY

NEWCOMB, N.Y - As jobs and families disappeared from this former mining town in the heart of the Adirondacks, the local public school here faced a grim choice: shut its doors or consolidate with another school district.

In 2007, however, the new superintendent realized that his greatest weakness - empty seats - might actually be his greatest asset. He's now selling slots at his high school to foreign students willing to pay $10,000 for one yearof an American education.

In an age when many educators fret about the USA's chronic struggle to make its students competitive with those in nations such as Finland and Singapore, flags of many countries line the main corridor at Newcomb Central School. Newcomb's embrace of foreign students is part of agrowing movement among rural American school districts struggling to stay afloat amid declining enrollments, said Newcomb superintendent Clark "Skip" Hults,

Newcomb is one of a number of schools -- both public and private -- quietly taking advantage of a growing interest in an American education by cash-ready international students.

Federal statistics show that the number of international high schoolers arriving in the USA on F-1 visas has jumped from about 6,500 in 2007 to 65,000 in 2012. Of those, all but 3,000 attended private schools, said Chris Page of the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel, a Virginia-based non-profit that monitors the safety and quality of study-abroad programs.

Federal law limits international students' stays in public schools, a restriction that private high schools don't face. So students here can stay in school for only a year.

Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said efforts such as Newcomb's are limited to a few districts, but he expects more to follow as they look for ways to stay afloat. "It's a revenue issue," he said. "A side benefit of it is this global, international feel, where a mass of these students can certainly influence the community."

Domenech said he's concerned that small-town school districts might encounter community resistance - and even outright hostility - to students from countries that aren't necessarily U.S. allies. "But that's America, and everyone is entitled to their opinion," he said. He is a former superintendent in Fairfax County, Va., which attracts thousands of foreign students, mostly because of its highly regarded science and math programs. Students who attend American public schools, he said, return to their countries "very much friends and allies of America. It really does help us do away with the stereotype of the 'ugly American.' "

A Cuban immigrant, Domenech came to the U.S. in 1955 at age 9. He learned English at a Catholic boarding school in Tarrytown, N.Y.

As a result of his early exposure to American education, Domenech said, he welcomes efforts to invite foreign students, especially from top-performing countries. "We tout these countries as being superior to the U.S. in these international tests, yet the parents of the top students want their children to come to America and get an American education."

Enrollment was sinking

A big, two-story brick structure that has been expanded twice since it was built in 1948, Newcomb's K-12 school once drew 400 students. By the time Hults arrived in the fall of 2006, only 57 students walked through the doors each morning. By spring, it was down to 55. A few daily classes held just three or four students.. If he didn't act soon, he said, just two students would graduate in 2008.

A former minister who'd arrived in Newcomb after teaching elementary school for several years in the bustling, Latino-influenced New York City suburb of Port Chester, Hults puzzled over what to do. His daughter was shocked to see, compared with Port Chester,how white all the faces were in Newcomb.

Then, a chance conversation with Hults' brother, an educator in Australia, sparked an idea: High schools there, he said, routinely recruit foreign students.

Seven years later, Newcomb has become a regional phenomenon. Since 2007, the district has filled empty seats with more than 80 high-school students from 28 countries.

Each international student pays $5,000 in tuition and another $5,500 in room and board to stay with a local family for a chance to experience an American public education and get a better shot at being admitted to a college in the USA. The tuition is the amount states or local governments set aside to spend on each U.S. student from property taxes or other revenue sources. The room and board fee goes directly to families that house the students.

A few students, such as Ipek Yildiz, a 19-year-old from Turkey, already have finished high school. They treat the year in Newcomb as a time to polish their English skills. "I came here just for English," she said. "The main idea was not the perfect school, just the perfect English." Ipek has been accepted at a Turkish college that offers all of its instruction in English, giving her a huge international advantage back home.

Perhaps more significant for Newcomb: Students like Ipek have attracted more local kids, drawn by the prospect of a more comprehensive, global education. As a result, the school has doubled in size since 2007 to 109 students. Only 18 of those are international - the rest are local students who heard about the program andmoved into the district to be part of it. They also were attracted by a partnership with local colleges that helps them earn credits before they graduate.

American students' international rankings in subjects such as math and science have slipped over the last decade, but Hults said families around the worlddon't care about that. "Ultimately, our public schools still have a great reputation," he said.

The turnaround here is all the more breathtaking given the isolated setting. Nestled in a long-preserved state wilderness area two hours northwest of Albany, tiny Newcomb seems as secluded as any public school in America. Hults holds most school board meetings in his office, unless the budget is on the agenda - then he moves it to the modest auditorium down the hall.

Many young people quickly learn that an iPhone here has little value because cell phone service is all but nonexistent.

Hults related a conversation he had with the father of a prospective French student, who told him, "I'm looking at Google Earth right now and all I see is trees."

Hults assured him there was a town there, even if there was no mall or even a downtown. The girl showed up that first year and quickly fell in love with the area. She and Hults still chat regularly by Skype, and a photo of the pair hangs in his office.

The program leans heavily on local families to host students. Hults and his wife are taking care of three girls this year, and Ed LaCourse, the high-school math teacher, has taken in two boys. Across two-lane state highway 28N, Sterling Goodspeed, a local attorney, hosts four boys. He said he never quite knows what the dinner table discussion will be: air quality in China, the significance of the 1968 Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War or the cost of Pringles potato chips in Brazil. He has found that Pringles is the one American product every kid has encountered.

Goodspeed says the international students bring a different, more global mindset to Newcomb. The first student he hosted, from Vietnam, insisted on taking the SAT four times before he got a score he liked. "These kids are driven, and that's good for our local kids too," Goodspeed says.

Students and teachers are divided on whether having foreign students forces the Newcomb kids to up their game. Junior Michaela Moses noted that in history class, "we talk about Mao a lot." She lives in Queensbury, an hour's drive south, but stays with her grandparents so she can attend school in Newcomb. Michaela said the international students have also stiffened the competition for grades in science. Peyton Gould, a senior, said it's just nice to have more people in class. She has attended school here since kindergarten and would have been one of just three graduating this spring without the new recruits.

Hults, of course, has seen the international test-score rankings, but said the real story is more complicated. USA kids get a broader education than students in many other countries, and a more balanced one, he said. "Our students know more about Chinese history than they do."

Hults sayshousing pressures and visa rules are the only real factors limiting programs like his. Students from China alone could fill every empty seat in every rural New York school, he says. Last August, Hults sent a dozen students to nearby districts because of housing crunches.

Thanks to the new arrivals, Newcomb's Class of 2014 has grown from just three students to 19, seven of whom are American. The fact that kids are now showing up from other districts is "a very unexpected outcome" that makes him believe the effort has been worth it.

The visitors also pour about $100,000 annually into the local economy, Hults said. They likely won't make Newcomb a tourist destination, but during a recent visit earlier this month, the town drew two tourists from Turkey: Ipek's mother and father, Aynur and Zafer Yildiz, who were staying with a local family. As Ipek translated, the couple said they were happy that she's safe in Newcomb, but that she wants to be closer to a big city. "She's 19-years-old and she wants some fun," Aynur Yildiz said.

Ipek, blushing, agreed: "I still love here, but I cannot live here more than one year because it's so small, so cold, so snowy."